Faults:

Central Locking operation is unreliable, car will randomly decide which door to not lock / unlock.

Parking Sensor fault, fixed under warranty.

Front Ball Joint fault, picked up on last MOT.

Not really the car's fault, but I've had two punctures in six months. Removing the alloy wheels was difficult as the hub corrodes where it contacts the alloy, causing the wheels to stick.

The rubber seals aren't stiff enough and seem to easily get caught when opening and closing the windows.

General Comments:

Wonderful driver's car, handles beautifully and the straight six is sweet as a nut. It never feels under powered and pulls with gusto all through the rev range. I can quite happily drive this car all day.

The capacity of the boot is poor considering it's an estate, but it will consume two bikes and access is good.

The mechanicals are all easily accessible for maintenance. It's a bit geeky, but, it's one of the neatest laid out engine bays I've seen.

The pedal layout takes some getting used to, as everything is squashed over to the right, to make room for the pointless foot rest.

Faults:

The cooling fan failed on the first long journey (300 miles approx.), resulting in the car overheating on the M25, and blowing the radiator expansion bottle. This added about 3 hours onto my journey time, and resulted in me having to drive a Nissan Almera for 3 days.

All door seals had a very annoying squeak, more noticeable when pulling off, or accelerating.

Instrument cluster became noisy (when needles moved) with 2 weeks.

Front passenger electric window failed.

Airbag system fault caused airbag warning light to come on - requiring a faulty wire to be replaced. During the cars stay at the dealership, the technician sheered the bolts off while removing the front drivers seat.

Front brake disc's warped.

Steering seemed almost uncontrollable when traveling over uneven road surfaces.

Car had roughly 8 annoying trips back to the dealer in the 5 weeks that I owned it - before they exchanged it for another car of the same model.

General Comments:

Nice looking car - on the outside anyway. I think the interior looks somewhat dated.

Can't give any praise as to the reliability.

Wouldn't recommend the dealer to a friend.

Faults:

I had the car a few days when the car started to pull to left under braking and steering wheel vibrating - This was caused by a faulty new tire that was put on before collection. This was fixed by BMW straight away.

A pump or belt or alternator now squealing on very cold start. Will get fixed at dealer next week.

Small rattle from passenger side rear door.

General Comments:

The car is quite quick (will beat a lot of cars off the traffic lights) but not as fast as I expected (this maybe due to faulty pump issue outlined above).

Handling is not bad around corners, however my old 3 series (1997 318) went around corners much better and seemed to have more grip. I believe this grip issue has been sorted on newer 2002 models.

The cabin is much more spacious than old 3 series and much more comfortable. The ride is also smoother (which is probably why handling is not as good as before).

Very impressed with BMW dealer. Slipped up at first by taking another customers deposit on another car I was test driving, but bent over backward to find me a great car at an even better price after that.